SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In chapter I we survey the main currents of the political history, the work so far done on our subject and the important sources which we use. Chapter II - There were supporters of both peasant-proprietorship and state ownership of land, but the claims of the state were increasing, and the feudal chief was emerging as a third claimant. In some parts of northern India a quasi-manorial system had grown up. In chapter III we analyse the revenue terms in the land-grants and try to determine their precise meaning. Chapter IV discusses the increase in the number of slaves, and the definite lowering in their status, and the effect of feudal polity and of Muslims on slavery. Chapter V - There was a general weakening in the organisation and economic importance of guilds, which were fossilising into sub-castes. Chapter VI deals with inter-state contacts and trade, the organisation of caravan Journeys and transport, the condition of roads, river traffic, and the decline in the volume of trade in this period. We discuss foreign trade in two chapters, in VII in relation to overland routes, and in VIII, in a wider context, the decline of Indian shipping and Its reasons, Indian ports, imports and exports, and the volume and balance of trade. In Chapter IX we consider money-lending, the use of letters of credit and banking institutions. Chapter X deals with the weight-standard of the coins, the identification of coin-names, and the prevalence of a money economy, the relative value of metals, and the right to mint coins. In chapter XI we discuss the periodisation of Indian history, the standard of living in the period, the causes responsible for poverty, the baneful influence of feudalism, and the stages in the history of India's economic decline.